


Ab Initio

by Maidenjedi



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-17
Updated: 2012-08-17
Packaged: 2017-11-12 07:41:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/488392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maidenjedi/pseuds/Maidenjedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The fix is in and the sky is falling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ab Initio

**Author's Note:**

> Title means "from the beginning."

Stuck. He was stuck in an elevator at the Hoover Building after 6pm on a Friday night.

No one even knew he was still there. It had been six months since Diana left and he was still without a partner. Not that he really wanted one; he was convinced it was better to work alone.

And they were between assistant directors, so no boss would ride his ass for this one.

Stuck in a freakin' elevator.

On a Friday night.

Mulder sat down and started fishing in his pocket for sunflower seeds. Of course there weren't any, he never had them in his pants pockets. It was a crazy habit anyway.

Somewhere right now, guys his age were picking up chicks at bars. Or maybe they were married and having kids.

Mulder? He was chasing demons and ghosts from a basement. They called him Spooky for a reason.

The elevator starting moving an hour later and Mulder went home.

To nobody.

-

"They're going to give you a partner, Mulder. That's the buzz."

Reggie took a bite of chili and cursed as he burnt his tongue, all in a hurry to say what he'd come here to say and get it the hell over with.

Mulder didn't throw anything or yell, which Reggie took as a good sign.

Instead he simply asked, "When?"

"I don't know. Soon. And I think it's a good idea, Mulder," Reggie said as he dug his spoon back into his chili.

Mulder nodded in sort of a dazed way. Reggie sighed inwardly, figuring now that he should have expected this kind of reaction instead of something violent. Mulder was contemplating all the reasons the Bureau would have to give him a partner. Reggie hoped, though he knew better, that Mulder wouldn't take this as someone's grand scheme to reel him in by spying on him.

They finished eating in silence and it unnerved Reggie. Mulder was only like this when he was working a case, when he had a lead and wouldn't drop it until he had seen with his own eyes that the bogeyman hadn't been by.

"I'll see ya, Reg." Mulder turned back toward the Hoover Building, intent on walking instead of taking a cab.

"Mulder, what are you going to do?" It was a Friday afternoon, and Reggie knew damned well there wasn't something on Mulder's plate. That's why it had been so easy to get him to come out in the first place.

"Clean my office. It's not exactly ready for visitors."

-

Office scuttlebutt had more than just Mulder getting a new partner for the first time since Diana had left. There was also a new assistant director on the horizon, after quite a drought between leaders.

Assistant Director Walter Skinner had received his promotion shortly after receiving his ten-year   
commendation for service in the Bureau. With no positions open, he cooled his heals for six months as an acting field director in Pennsylvania. He was finally scheduled to take the spot at headquarters in August.

Mulder did some research, what he considered S.O.P. when dealing with anyone new to his chain of command. Senator Matheson confirmed that Skinner was going to be what they all were - career Bureau hacks who were more interested in the bottom line than they were solving crimes and saving lives. Mulder didn't have to worry much, though, because he answered to Section Chief Blevins and not an assistant director.

Until a staff meeting he was required to attend proved otherwise.

"New orders, agents. You've been without direct supervision for quite some time, but from this point you will all answer directly to Assistant Director Skinner, who is taking over day-to-day operations. Section Chief Blevins will oversee AD Skinner and AD Maslin. Any questions?"

He had a lot of them, but held his tongue. For now.

-

Summer in Washington was always humid and hot, but this summer seemed especially unbearable.

He didn't wear a tie for weeks.

The rumors about a partner had cooled off considerably, and he was getting complacent. In some ways, he could use another set of eyes, he thought as he went through another set of slides from another messy homicide with a magnifying glass.

But it would also create time-consuming roadblocks that he just did not want to deal with, he amended later as he answered several phone messages from a MUFON group in southern Kentucky.

The air conditioner in his car had stopped working, so he drove home that night with the windows down. As usual, he'd left after most of his colleagues had gone home, and night had fallen.

At his apartment, his complacency was shaken away completely when he saw the Post-It note that had fallen to the floor from what was likely an eye-level spot on the door. Damned things never held up in the humidity.

"She's one of them," it said, scribbled hastily in black Sharpie.

Well, what the hell did that mean?

-

He took the Post-It note to Danny the next day to have it checked for prints and possible DNA samples. The only prints Danny could find were Mulder's, and the one tiny hair on it likely belonged to the shaggy mutt Mulder's neighbors kept.

Okay, fine. Mulder decided he would take it up with AD Skinner instead of waiting for more "evidence" to play detective with.

"Am I getting a new partner? What the hell is this about and why haven't I been told anything? This is my work, you can't just mess with it like this!" He barged in, ignoring the lovely administrative assistant at the desk outside who protested quite vehemently.

AD Skinner already had a reputation for being no-nonsense (the boys at the water cooler called him a "hard ass"). Mulder was not disappointed.

"Agent Mulder, when you wish to see me, you will make an appointment with my assistant. If I wish to see you, I will have her summon you. But I will not, under any circumstances, tolerate this nonsense! Go outside and wait!"

He sounded like every other newly appointed assistant director in the FBI. Mulder wasn't fooled.

When he was finally called back into Skinner's office, he decided to play it cool and just ask questions, making no accusations. Who knew whose side Skinner might be on?

Damn, Mulder, you're a paranoid S.O.B.

"Agent Mulder, what can I do for you?" A different tone, but still one that warned the listener that Walter Skinner was not about to put up with idiots.

Or paranoid basement rats with an axe to grind, Mulder thought with a wry twist in his countenance.

"I've been hearing rumors that another agent will be soon assigned to the X-files, sir. I've come to see if I can get this confirmed or denied."

Skinner stared at Mulder, who met that uncompromising gaze with one of his own. Skinner backed down first.

"You'll need to talk to Section Chief Blevins about that, Agent Mulder. You answer to me, but SC Blevins has authority over all assignments in that division."

Mulder took that in and let it stew. Blevins had always supported Mulder's work, had signed off on the creation of the X-files division and had assured Mulder that nothing would hinder his investigations. The bureaucracy inherent in most of the FBI's work would not interfere with the X-files.

So if Skinner was telling the truth....

"So you can't confirm this, sir? Even though any agent assigned to my division, to the X-files, would also answer to you?"

Skinner narrowed his eyes and put his hands on his desk. Mulder recognized this for an intimidation tactic; Skinner was a well-built ex-Marine (Mulder had memorized his file) and was well-versed in physical intimidation.

"I can't confirm anything, Agent Mulder. If you have no further questions, let's consider this meeting over and get back to work."

Mulder left without acknowledging this, but his mind was busy problem-solving.

Skinner watched him leave, and once the door was shut and he was sure Mulder was out of earshot completely, he made a phone call.

"He knows. What's next?"

-

Section Chief Blevins wasn't in, but there was a man in his office. Someone with a cigarette who was using Blevins' phone. The assistant out front told Mulder the man was a colleague waiting for a meeting with SC Blevins.

Mulder headed back to the basement, deciding that if he couldn't get any straight answers, he might as well get back to his investigations. He had a message on his voicemail from someone sounding like Frohike (with those guys, you never could quite tell through the voice scrambler)  
about a lead on a case in Bellefleur, Oregon.

What the hell, he thought. He left early and went to the Gunmen's place to find out what he could about the case.

-

He got home after midnight, feeling a bit nauseated from the cheese steaks he and Langly had gone for after the "briefing."

The good news was, the evidence was pretty convincing, and it looked like Mulder had finally gotten a break. He'd been chasing too many leads that turned out to be mutants or DNA anomalies, stories of alien abductions that were really just cases of drug use or even elaborately staged kidnapping (fascinating, but not his schtick; he turned over half his leads to Reggie or to Jack Crawford in Behavioral Sciences). If the paperwork Frohike had given him was any indication, there was some weird shit going on in Bellefleur.

This was exactly what Mulder wanted to see. Weird shit was right up his alley.

He walked into his apartment and nearly tripped on something that had been slipped under his door. A manila envelope marked with an X, and his name, the handwriting once again obscured by someone's messy technique with a Sharpie.

Curiosity always got the better of Fox Mulder, and he opened the envelope before he'd even shut the door behind him.

Inside was a stack of documents, some of which looked like a background check and an FBI profile. There was a stapled group of papers, and when Mulder turned on the light he could see that the top page read "Einstein's Twin Paradox: A New Interpretation by Dana Katherine Scully."

He shook his head, trying to think clearly. What was this, and who had put it here?

He took the bundle to his couch and sat down. Thumbing through it more thoroughly this time, he saw pictures, what looked like surveillance photos taken of a small, young-looking woman. Mulder squinted, and made out in some of the photos what looked like a standard classroom at Quantico.

On the FBI profile sheet, he found an answer of sorts. This was Special Agent Dana Scully, and she was an instructor at Quantico in forensic science.

He put the papers back in the envelope and sat back on his couch, thinking.

-

"They call him Spooky Mulder," one agent whispered to another after Mulder walked by the next morning.

"Why? That's a terrible nickname. It's not even funny."

"Back at the Academy he developed a reputation. He was a phenomenal profiler, he could really dissect the bad guys. He was recruited to work cases while he was still at the Academy."

"What do you mean, was? Isn't he still an agent?"

"Yeah, but about a year and a half ago, he and his dame partner petitioned the Bureau to reopen a division called the X-files."

"Is she hot?"

"She was. She was transferred out about a year ago. They probably had a fight over the actual color of alien skin or something." The agent laughed, but the other just frowned at him.

"Alien skin? The hell?"

"The X-files investigates the nut jobs who either want the FBI to solve all their problems, or that we're all out to get them, that the government's working against the people."

"That's rich. Mulder believes it, huh."

"That's what they say."

-

Section Chief Blevins received a phone call every day when someone could confirm that Special Agent Fox Mulder was in the building. They had to watch him, which was hard to do without having extra eyes and ears in the basement office. They hadn't bugged it - yet - so giving him a partner was the next best thing.

Blevins didn't pick her. The man with the cigarettes had brought Blevins Agent Scully's name. She seemed perfect. She was cute enough that any suspicions Mulder might have would be alleviated, or at least that was the thinking in the testosterone-heavy Bureau leadership. They made sure   
to run her profile by Senator Matheson, too, so Mulder would be less likely to point fingers if he suspected she was spying.

Blevins received a call when Agent Scully was in the building. He felt some tension slide from him; already, knowing that Mulder would be shut up was a comforting feeling.

Debunk the work? No, Agent Scully. We wish to eradicate Fox Mulder's presence in this or any other investigative agency.

We all have secrets we want to keep, after all.

-

So that was Special Agent Dana Scully, Mulder mused after their conversation in the basement office. A bit of a looker. I'm gonna catch hell from the boys upstairs for sure.

Not that it was anything new.

He determined ahead of time that he would keep his distance, not arouse any kind of suspicion from the upper echelon. He would refer to her as "Scully" and keep distance between them.

In any event, Diana was still fresh on his mind, and he had no intention of sliding down that path again.

Even for Agent Scully's trim figure and sharp mind.

He called Reggie and they met for a quick dinner before Mulder had to meet Scully at the airport.

"What do you think of your new partner?" Reggie asked.

"I'm sure we'll get along just fine. But she's working for them, Reg. She's the enemy."

Reggie shrugged and looked Mulder in the eye. "You can't think like that about everyone and everything, Mulder. A good partnership is built on trust, and you have to take it for granted that you can trust her the way you trust me."

Mulder pulled his jacket on and left a few extra dollars on the table for a tip. "I have to get to know her, Reggie. She can't have the benefit of the doubt before she's been tested at the plate."

"Mulder, you have to give her a chance."

Mulder shook his head. "No. She's going to have to prove it to me if she's not part of their agenda."

He walked away. Reggie sighed and left shortly afterwards.

Neither of them saw the black sedan down the street that followed Mulder home.

-

Stuck. He was stuck in the elevator at the Hoover building after 6pm on a Friday night.

He and Scully had gotten back from Bellefleur earlier that day, and Scully gave her report to Blevins. Meanwhile, Mulder went down to the office and began working on another case file. Scully had planned to go home when she was done with Blevins and "detox," as she put it.

Mulder considered calling her, but inside the elevator shaft he was sure he'd have no signal on his cellular phone and she'd never hear him.

Stuck in a freakin' elevator.

On a Friday night.

Mulder sat down and started fishing in his pocket for sunflower seeds. Of course there weren't any, he never had them in his pants pockets. It was a crazy habit anyway.

Somewhere right now, guys his age were picking up chicks at bars. Or maybe they were married and having kids. He was once again stuck in an elevator, alone and still plagued with visions of the small of a woman's back lit by candlelight.

A back he hadn't even touched.

He cursed his luck and tried not to think about what Scully had meant by "detox," and played with the buttons on the elevator control panel for awhile like a restless kid.

The elevator starting moving an hour later and Mulder finally made it up to ground level. As he was leaving the elevator he remembered he had intended to take his briefcase home, and it was back in the office.

He wasn't about to risk the elevator again, so he took the stairs down to the basement, realizing on the way that he probably needed to go for a run more often.

The door to his office was open and fluorescent light betrayed whoever was inside. Mulder was alarmed - no one was ever down here, not even Skinner, other than himself. His hand moved to the butt of his handgun.

"Hello?"

"Hello?" responded a feminine voice.

It was the last time Mulder ever thought of that office strictly as his alone.


End file.
